Production at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility

Image credit: LMSSC-MO

As many have probably heard by now, filming on the upcoming Ender's Game movie has just started in Louisiana. According to a local news channel in New Orleans, filming will be taking place at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in a space that is now being occupied by Big Easy Studios. The production crew is scheduled to occupy the facility for over a year.

Katie Williams, Director of Film New Orleans, reported that over 46 big-budget productions were shot in New Orleans this past year, several at the Michoud Assembly Facility, including G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

Click here for the news article and accompanying video.

With the discontinuation of NASA's space shuttle program, many of the facilities previously used for spacecraft construction were left vacant. The MAF is thus being occupied and rented not only by Big Easy Studios and the Ender's Game crew, but also by the US Coast Guard, the USDA National Finance Center and other production teams. (Source)

Universial Studios was scheduled to begin filming two unnamed movies at the MAF in January, while MGM and Disney were also looking to secure an area for production purposes in the over 2 million square feet of space.

The Michoud Assembly Facility will later be the manufacturing site for NASA's next big project: the Orion Spacecraft, designed for deep space exploration. (nasaspaceflight.com)

As well as announcing the start of filming, an official news release from yesterday included a lengthy synopsis of the film:

In the near future, a hostile alien race (Formics) have attacked Earth. If not for the legendary heroics of Commander Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley), all would have been lost. In preparation for the next attack, the highly esteemed Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) and the International Fleet (IF) Military are training only the best young children to find the future Mazer. Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy, but strategically brilliant boy is pulled out of his school to join the elite. Ender easily masters increasingly difficult war games, distinguishing himself and winning respect amongst his peers at Battle School. Ordained by Graff as the IF's next great hope, Ender is promoted to Command School. Once there, he's trained by Rackham himself to lead his fellow soldiers into an epic battle that will determine the future of Earth and humankind.

Filming is scheduled to continue through June 8th.